What I spent on a road trip to Maine from NYC
A 10 day vacation on 0 PTO days
Thanks for checking out Ten Dollar Latte! I’m not a financial advisor, just a 27-year-old trying to afford life in NYC. I write about how I spend my money while enjoying a $10 latte. Subscribe for free!
If you read my last monthly reset, you might have seen I had higher spending in a few categories because of a vacation I took at the end of the month.
Did I use PTO for this trip? No, because I don’t have PTO right now. A little context on me: I’m 27, live in New York City, and got laid off earlier this year. Since then, I’ve been spending my days working on my small business (party card games, Sidetracks), working the side gig I had since before the layoff (with a few more hours than before), and enjoying going to places on a Monday at 3pm when everyone else is at work because I know this sabbatical (as I’ve deemed it) won’t last forever. I’ve also been interviewing for jobs after finally having more clarity on what I’m looking for (that’ll be a future post).
The trip started on Tuesday, June 25th, when I first left New York City, and ended on Friday, July 5th, when I returned. Hotel expenses were $0 since we stayed with friends and family (a lot of cousins) the entire time, and I also spent $0 on flights (we drove).
Tuesday, June 25th:
7:00am I started feeling sick last Friday and it still hasn’t gone away. We’re supposed to leave for our trip tomorrow, and I’m starting to feel nervous about making it happen. I had a couple wholesale orders for my small business come in the day before. I had originally planned to drop them off in person, but I instead sent them to my mom to ship out that day and left my apartment headed to Urgent Care.
8:30am I stopped for a bagel on the way to urgent care. I hadn’t felt very hungry the whole time I was sick, but I knew I needed to eat. $7.25
9:00am I tested negative for Covid and the flu at urgent care, and they said it was just a virus. I didn’t have a copay, but we’ll see what I get billed in the mail. $???
12:30pm I went home, packed, and caught the subway to Grand Central to head to my sister’s house in the suburbs on Metro North. $14.65
4:00pm I had a second interview for a job I applied to the week before. Since my layoff, I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about what I want next, and I finally think I have a clearer idea of what that is. While I was mostly over the fever by then, I still had some brain fog and pretty much bombed the interview. Oh, well.
5:00pm I spent the rest of the day on my sister’s couch. I got an email rejection for a job I’d interviewed for the previous week that I agreed wouldn’t be a good fit for me.
Wednesday, June 26th:
8:00am I woke up at my sister’s house feeling good besides a small headache. I took some ibuprofen.
2:00pm My sister and I hit the road. Our first stop was Newport, Rhode Island, where one of my friends from college lives.
5:00pm We arrived in Newport. We got drinks before dinner; I got a club soda and my sister paid. We got dinner with my friend and split the bill. When visiting friends, I like to either treat for something or bring a small gift—we’d brought a candle and matches. $39.68
8:00pm We went to another bar after dinner. Still not wanting to drink after just recovering from being sick, I got a non-alcoholic beer. $11.00
Thursday, June 27th:
8:00am We woke up. My friend had already left for work, and my sister and I got breakfast in town at a cute cafe. I paid for both of us. $19.17
10:00am We walked the Cliff Walk and then hit the road. We stopped for coffee and lunch; my sister paid.
1:00pm We stopped at Newport Vineyards since we were on the hunt for Sakonnet candles (a Rhode Island candle company), but they were out. Instead, we bought a bottle of wine (their house white, which I’d tried on my last trip to Newport and enjoyed) to bring to our aunt and uncle’s house. I paid. $18.00
4:30pm We arrived at the shoe store my cousin works at in the Boston suburbs. I bought two pairs of sneakers, one for running, and one for walking. I live in New York City and walk a lot—sneakers are a very necessary expense. $269.90
6:00pm We went out to dinner with our cousin. He paid for dinner, but I paid the tip in cash. $20.00
8:00pm We headed to our aunt and uncle’s house in a nearby suburb.
Friday, June 28th:
7:30am I went for a run with my aunt and my cousin. Free, and priceless. It felt great in my new sneakers I’d bought the day before.
9:00am My sister and I took our cousins to the beach. We got a free parking pass from the library. Afterwards, we stopped for lunch and coffee. My sister paid for lunch and I paid for our coffees. $20.53
12:00pm I applied for a couple jobs quickly on my phone and got a rejection email from the interview I knew I’d bombed on Tuesday. I decided not to worry about that for the rest of the vacation and enjoy the trip.
2:00pm We walked to a local farmstand (so New England) to pick up vegetables for dinner. I paid. $3.50
6:00pm We went to a local brewery after dinner. I bought a drink for my sister and I, plus used some quarters to play pool with my cousins. $20.00
8:00pm We went to another brewery. I paid for my sister and I’s drinks. $19.20
Saturday, June 29th:
9:30am We hit the road heading north (queue up Noah Kahan). We stopped for gas; my sister paid. Then we stopped for breakfast and coffee; I paid. $29.88
1:00pm We stopped at Target and picked up some more snacks for the road. My sister paid. Then we stopped at Allagash Brewery (one of my favorite breweries!) in Portland, Maine. I got two small beers. $13.61
1:30pm We picked up some gifts on the way out—one shirt for a friend, beer for our dad, a magnet for our cousins we planned to see later in the trip, beer for another cousin we planned to see, a shirt for my sister’s husband, and a shirt for myself. I paid for two shirts and the beer. $84.90
4:00pm We arrived at our cousin’s apartment farther out in Maine. We went out for dinner and drinks with our cousins who lived in the town; my sister paid for most of mine, but I bought her a drink at the last bar. $10.00
Sunday, June 30th:
9:00am We had a slow morning and went out for coffee and breakfast. My cousin paid.
11:00am I went for a run in my cousin’s neighborhood. It was hot, and I sweat a lot, but the shoes were still feeling great.
1:00pm We went for a local hike and noted that we’d definitely need bug spray for our hike the next day at Acadia. On the way back, we stopped at Chipotle for lunch. I paid for all three of us. $32.35
4:00pm We had a lazy rest of the day at my cousin’s apartment, knowing we would be getting up early the next day to head to Acadia National Park. I worked on my monthly reset for Substack, which I scheduled to publish the next morning.
Monday, July 1st:
7:00am We left for Acadia National Park early. We picked up bug spray on the way. We also stopped at Dunkin’ and I got iced tea and hash browns. $5.16
8:30am We got to the Visitor’s Center and I paid for parking and our national park pass. $35.00
9:00am We caught one of the free shuttle buses around Acadia and went for a 4.4 mile hike. PSA: if you’re hiking Acadia, skip the Beehive hike for Champlain Mountain instead.
2:00pm Exhausted, we caught a free shuttle bus back into Bar Harbor and got lunch. I paid for my smoothie and sandwich. $28.06
4:00pm We got back to my cousin’s apartment and had a relaxing night. We ordered dinner in; I paid. $54.93
Tuesday, July 2nd:
8:00am We got breakfast and coffee at a place in town. My cousin paid.
10:00am My sister and I hit the road heading back south. We picked up a bottle of wine at a liquor store in New Hampshire (no sales tax!) and lunch. The wine was planned to be a gift for our cousins we were heading to next (theme of this vacation: visiting lots of cousins). I paid for lunch for my sister and I, and she bought us iced teas at Dunkin’. $32.56
3:30pm We got to my cousins’ apartment outside Boston and spent the night there. They ordered us dinner in, and we spent the evening hanging out with their kids (a toddler and baby).
Wednesday, July 3rd:
6:30am We woke up early, partially because we were used to early Maine sunrises, and partially because the toddler woke us up early.
9:00am We headed back south and stopped to pick up a birthday gift for our dad. We’d already gotten him a couple things, but wanted to get him some new shirts for running. I paid for the gift, and my sister bought us Starbucks. $31.91
11:30am We stopped for gas. My sister paid.
12:00pm We arrived at my parents’ house and promptly threw all our clothes from the hikes in the laundry. I went for a run in the neighborhood.
2:00pm We spent the rest of the day relaxing by the pool, and ate dinner in.
Thursday, July 4th:
6:00am I woke up and went for a run with my dad.
8:00am I had breakfast at home and spent the morning preparing for having more family over later that day. We spent most of the day in the pool with our extended family—and I didn’t leave the house, so I didn’t spend any money.
Friday, July 5th:
9:00am I packed up and got a ride from a family member to the train station. I took Metro North back to New York City and the subway home from Grand Central. $16.90
Total: $831.89
travel: $32.55
dining out: $261.79
drinks out: $68.81
gifts/donations: $104.81
clothing/makeup: $299.90
hobby/experience: $40.00
coffee out: $20.53
groceries/household: $3.50
This was above my average spending for a week in New York, but lower than my typical vacation spending (thanks to my sister for driving and all our cousins for hosting us!). We had originally considered flying to Maine, but we decided it would be fun to drive and make stops on the way, and being in New York City, I never drive anyway, so it was nice to get an annual road trip in. And it didn’t hurt that it was cheaper than flying!
Do you love or hate how we split things? With close friends and family, I’ve always been more in favor of trading off who buys what instead of splitting everything down to the dollar. But I’ve definitely appreciated a more even split when I was in college or on trips with bigger groups of friends, like a bachelorette.
Thanks for reading! I post weekly about personal finance and lifestyle in NYC. I also post a monthly reset on the 1st of each month sharing everything I spent money on the previous month and goals for the next month.
Sounds like it was a really lovely trip and far more enjoyable by car than dealing with any of the NYC airports. If you wanted to make this trip even cheaper, I feel like you could justify the sneakers as not really being a trip expense since you'd need these anyway. But that might veer too close to girl mathing.
Fun! I did a road trip to Maine a few years ago in October, which is its own kind of lovely, but I'd love to go back and experience an east coast summer. As for splitting, I usually prefer to just pay for my own stuff, but with sisters, we usually trade off who pays for stuff too.